This has never been my favorite part about Japanese. I grew up speaking English, so this was a bit different for me. However, it's absolutely necessary. Once you've been comfortable with the structure, it'll come a bit more naturally. Heck, even sometimes I have to stop and think about where something goes before I speak.

Here's a simple way to put it: Japanese is an SOV (Subject Object Verb) language, while English is an SVO (Subject Verb Object) language. For example:

私は学生です。 (Watashi wa gakusei desu.)
I am a student.

Does that make sense? As you can see, the verb (which is "to be") is at the end of the sentence. If that were literally translated, it'd be "I a student am". Hence why we don't literally translate Japanese! Here's another sentence:

私は日本が好きです。 (Watashi wa nihon ga suki desu.)
I like Japan.

While "desu" is also the verb, it is simply stating "being". I've never been able to explain "desu"... sorry. It's just something you'll learn to put at the end of your sentences. I'm not going to stress it too much right now.

There is so much more grammar, but there are your basics. All the grammar certainly can't fit in one lesson, so I'm just going to leave it at that. If you ever have a question about grammar, feel free to ask me. I'll help you in the best way I can.

Thanks for this.
I just started to learn Japanese and I think that the sentence structure is (for me)the most difficult part.

thanks for your effort

hai, i'm new here. can i ask a question?
if "desu" is mean "being" (or now maybe?) how about for past tense?

Thanks, my school doesn't give Japanese, but watching stuff with subtitles I've noticed the difference and was really confused.

@ dottie: I've only taken half a year of Japanese at a community school a few years ago and my memory is a little fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure past tense of 'desu' is 'deshita.' But you should probably check elsewhere.

to add, Nippongo seems to a bit easier to learn than Korean or Mandarin, what with the function words and lesser verb forms as if it can almost be read by a "computer"

for past tense you would say "deshita" pronounced (desh ta)

Arigato gozaimasu! I've searched for sentence strusture, but I couldn't find a good one . Hontoni arigato ^_^

good explanations still like your style

you explain very well! thanx